Katya MacLean has been appointed as Guardian's interim chief executive as Simon Davis stepped down for an extended sabbatical.
The protection challenger announced today (July 10) that Simon Davis is set to take a break for personal reasons and that Ms MacLean, the firm's current chief operating officer, has been appointed as interim CEO.
Peter Mann, former chairman at Guardian, is set to take on Mr Davis' duties as executive chairman.
The leadership change takes place as Guardian adjusts to meeting increasing demand for its products, it stated.
Mr Mann said: "Guardian has seen huge demand for its proposition at a strategic level.
"The number of major distribution agreements we’ve secured in our first nine months of trading is an acceleration of our original business plan.
"With this rapid take-up, there has been an associated increase in onboarding and servicing requirements, so we have refocused the team to meet these new objectives."
Last year, Guardian Financial Services entered the insurance market in a bid to "disturb the market" and provide advisers with a transparent and simpler alternative for their clients.
Guardian now has partnerships in place with most of the main distributors and its proposition is available on the Iress, iPipeline, Synaptic and LifeQuote portals.
Mr Mann added he was delighted to see Ms MacLean promoted saying she had a "fantastic reputation" at Guardian.
Ms MacLean told FTAdviser earlier this year that the protection industry still needed to do more to increase transparency and gain consumer trust.
imogen.tew@ft.com
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